gracie allen
Gracie Allen biography
Synopsis
Born in 1905 in San Francisco, Gracie Allen became one of America's best-loved comediennes in the 1930s. She and husband George Burns had a highly popular weekly radio program together and which popularized the domestic situation comedy.
Actress, singer, comedienne. Born Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen,
on July 26, 1905, in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Edward
Allen, an entertainer, and Margaret Darragh. When only three years old,
Gracie made her stage debut with her father, a local entertainer. She
was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent, a Catholic girls' school,
but left school at the age of fourteen to permanently join her father
and three older sisters on the stage. Soon, the Allen sisters signed
with the Larry Reilly Company, which began to feature Gracie's Irish
songs and dancing. After several seasons of touring, she quit the troupe
in a dispute over billing. Unhappy with her stage career, she enrolled
in a secretarial school.While attending school in 1922, Allen
visited backstage at the Union Theater in Union Hill, New Jersey. She
had learned from friends that the comedy team of George Burns and
William Lorraine would soon break up, and Lorraine would need another
partner. Mistaking Burns for Lorraine, she inquired about forming a
team. After three days Burns confessed his true identity, but Gracie
vowed to give the act a chance.
Burns and Allen
The new team of Burns and Allen opened at the Hill Street Theater in Newark, New Jersey. Recognizing that Allen was a natural comedienne, Burns rewrote their sketches to give her the witty lines and assumed for himself a secondary role. The performances relied heavily on Allen's singing and dancing talents and always concluded with Allen dancing an exuberant Irish jig. After three years of traveling together, Burns and Allen married on January 7, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1926 Burns developed a routine entitled Lamb Chops, which played at the Jefferson Theater in New York City. Then the Keith Theater chain signed them to a five-year contract: Burns and Allen had reached top billing in vaudeville. While performing on European stages for Keith, the couple made their radio debut over the British Broadcasting Corporation's network. The new medium seemed tailored to their intimate style of comedy. By the late 1920's, Burns and Allen were one of the most popular acts in the United States. Toward the end of 1930, they appeared for nine weeks at New York's Palace Theater, headlining a program billed as marking vaudeville's end. Several weeks later, Eddie Cantor asked Allen to be a guest on his radio program. Her popularity with listeners prompted invitations from other radio shows, and soon the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) offered Burns and Allen a contract. On the night of February 15, 1932, they joined Guy Lombardo's musical variety show. Within a year, Lombardo had been reduced to a supporting role on The Burns and Allen Comedy Show.
The switch to radio required major changes in the Burns and Allen style. Dialogue assumed primary importance, which lessened the emphasis on Allen's singing and dancing. Burns suggested they pretend to play themselves and give the audience a glimpse of their private lives--a milestone in the development of the domestic situation comedy. In the future, the Burns and Allen formula would spawn many imitators.
Radio Career
In the late 1930's their radio program was ranked as one of the top
three shows in the United States; an estimated 45 million people
listened to their show each week. Burns and Allen were always affiliated
with CBS, except in 1937 when they moved to NBC. Over the years, the
show was sponsored by a number of companies: Robert Burns Cigars, Lever
Brothers, Maxwell House Coffee, Campbell Soup, Grape Nuts, General
Foods, and Swan Soap. Domestic humor was the staple of Burns and Allen. A
typical example was the search in 1933 for Gracie's "lost brother."
During the hunt, she visited all major radio programs and urged the
public to help seek out her elusive relative. Gracie's real brother,
George Allen, a San Francisco accountant, was forced to go into
seclusion until the gag was terminated.Occasionally Burns and
Allen departed from their usual format. In 1940, for instance, Allen
decided to run for president as the candidate of the Surprise party. She
declared her political philosophy to be the avoidance of
overconfidence. "I realize," she said, "that the President of today is
merely the postage stamp of tomorrow." Early in the 1930's, Burns and
Allen took up residence in Beverly Hills, California. Their domestic
life was happy and tranquil. In the middle of the decade, they adopted
two children. During these years, they also starred in a number of
feature films for Paramount Studios, including The Big Broadcast (1932), Six of a Kind (1934), and College Holiday (1936). But motion pictures were a distant second to their weekly radio program.
Death and Legacy
October 1950, Burns and Allen moved to television. Their popularity
continued but Allen began to tire of the character she had played for so
many years. In 1958 she retired from show business, while Burns pursued
an independent career. On August 27, 1964, Allen died of a heart attack
in Los Angeles.From the 1920's to the 1950's, Allen stood at
center stage as one of America's favorite female entertainers. She and
Burns pioneered in the development of the domestic situation comedy. She
always played the role of a zany woman who had found happiness through
pleasant insanity. Her appeal rested upon an ability to convince an
audience that in reality she was indeed the scatterbrained character she
portrayed.
Quick Facts
- NAME: Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen
- OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Comedian, Singer
- BIRTH DATE: July 26, 1905
- DEATH DATE: August 27, 1964
- PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California
- PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
Best Known For
Gracie Allen became one of America's best-loved comediennes from the Burns and Allen weekly radio program she developed with husband George Burns.
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